As deer season fades away and energy is focused on turkey hunting, there is another outdoors specter building in the background. Crappie fishing fever usually cranks up in late March, then peaks in April into early May depending on the spawn. However, this season crappie madness has already begun with suggestions from the experts to get out on the lakes now.

Mississippi is blessed with some of the Top Ten crappie lake entries in the whole country. Surveys taken the past few years have indicated a number of the best overall crappie lakes reside right here in the Magnolia State. These include a number of Corps of Engineers reservoirs including Arkabutla, Sardis, Enid, Grenada, and the Ross Barnett Reservoirs as well as one of the best state crappie lakes in the nation, Lake Washington.

Much of these crappie lake madness accolades were reinforced by a trio of top crappie anglers and guides at a recent crappie madness fishing seminar held at Bass Pro Shops store in Pearl, Mississippi. Hugh Krutz, Tommy Moss, and Brad Calhoun are fishing pros for B’nM Poles of West Point, Mississippi. These guys know crappie, and know these top crappie lakes.

So, what tips did these crappie pros impart? The seminar provided so many pieces of crappie fishing advice that I could hardly keep up with the notetaking. They discussed crappie jig colors, using minnows, crappie pole selections, fishing structure, and tips on when it is best to go fishing for crappie.

A primary take away was crappie jig colors. “Use just about any color of crappie jig you want so long as it is chartreuse,” Hugh Krutz advised. He also mentioned that a lot of jig color combinations work too including orange and chartreuse, or black and chartreuse. Guess what the common denominator here is for crappie jig color?

It was joked by these pros that all those colors of jigs hanging on the racks at the stores are primarily for the anglers, not the fish. “It’s not to say you cannot catch fish on plain red, pink, white, or whatever, but if you want to catch a lot of fish, then drop chartreuse jigs on crappie structure,” said Brad Calhoun.

Another great tip was “The best all-around jig color is a minnow,” said Tommy Moss. Many crappie anglers add a minnow on top of a colored jig, but the minnow is the winning element. A live minnow is always the best bait for catching crappie. Make sure you have plenty.

There were too many tips to provide here, but use 8 pound test High Vis line. Fish three days after a major storm and follow the bait fish. If you want some great crappie fishing action, then check out the award winning lakes in Mississippi.